Health care expenditures in the United States account for nearly 18 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Importantly, inpatient hospital costs account for nearly one-third of all health care expenses for the civilian noninstitutionalized population in the United States. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality provides an annual overview of national statistics on inpatient hospital stays, including their associated costs, using data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP). This Statistical Brief provides the most current data on costs for stays in community hospitals in the United States using data from 2011 and compares the results to data from 1997.
The analysis of 2010 data on costs for hospital stays was published in Statistical Brief #146, Costs for Hospital Stays in the United States, 2010. Earlier results from 2005 through 2009 are presented in a series of HCUP Facts and Figures reports.
Statistics on costs are included for stays by age, primary payer, major diagnostic category, and principal diagnosis. All differences between estimates noted in the text are statistically significant at the .001 level or better.